Victorious Hadi forces advance toward Taez

ADEN: Saudi-backed forces loyal to Yemen’s President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi clashed with the Houthi group inside the city of Ibb on Tuesday, residents said, in their latest significant advance into territory the rebels had held unopposed for months.
The fighters advanced into the central city, home to around 200,000 people, from two surrounding rural areas and set up checkpoints at its entrances. Residents reached by phone reported hearing heavy gunfire.
Loyalists have launched a major counter-offensive in recent weeks and recaptured four southern provinces — Abyan, Aden, Daleh, and Lahj — from Houthis.
Late Monday, they took Loder, the last Houthi-occupied town in Abyan, and were poised to enter the southern Shabwa province.
Military officials said the advance is heading toward third city Taez, southwest of Sanaa.
A Gulf military alliance intervened in late March just as the Iran-allied Houthis entered Aden and appeared poised to capture the region.
The coalition is keen to repel perceived influence by Iran on the Arabian Peninsula.
Yemen’s government has been cheered by a series of important victories by southern fighters since Aden was retaken last month with the help of heavy Arab air strikes and weapons deliveries.
Clashes with Houthi forces also raged on Tuesday in the central provinces of Al-Bayda and Shabwa, where militiamen appeared to be gaining the upper hand backed by warplanes from Gulf states bombing from the air.
Officials from Hadi’s government have pledged to gradually resume their presence on Yemeni soil, beginning from their newly-won base in the south.
The Popular Resistance Committees seized the town of Utmah, about 100 km south of capital Sanaa, military officials said.
The town is in the province of Dhammar, which borders Sanaa province.
Fierce clashes between local pro-government militia and the terrorists rocked Arhab, just 25 km north of Sanaa, military sources said.
“Sanaa is the real target” of the advancing pro-Hadi forces, said analyst Mustafa Al-Ani, from the Gulf Research Center.
The sweeping victories in the south are a result of the rebels pulling their forces back to Taez, according to Yemeni analyst Abdulaziz Al-Sabri.
“Whoever wins Taez wins all of Yemen,” he said.